Razor blade holder



June 14, 1966 E, A, RQBERTSQN ET AL 3,255,523

RAZOR BLADE HOLDER Filed July lO, 1964 United States Patent Office3,255,523 Patented June 14, 1966 3,255,523 RAZOR BLADE HOLDER Elbert A.Robertson, 2230 Rosecrans, Gardena, Calif., and Jerry L. Ogle, 10242Virginia, South Gate, Calif. Filed July 10, 1964, Ser. No. 381,674 1Claim. (Cl. 30-32) This invention relates to surgical instruments, andmore particularly to a razor or the like. i

Although the present invention will have a great lmany applicationsother than those disclosed herein and should not therefore be limitedthereto, the invention has been found to be especially useful as a hairoutliner. That is, barbers have found it useful as a device for trimminghair around the ears and on the neck.

In the pas-t, prior art straight razors, as distinguished from safetyrazors, have been expensive to manufacture and to assemble. In order toobviate stropping, a straight razor with a replaceable blade has beenemployed. However, such a razor has likewise been expensive tomanufacture, and therefore has been difficult to operate. Prior artrazors have also been relatively weak in their mechanical construction.

In accordance with the present invention,v the abo-vedescribed and otherdisadvantages of the prior art are overcome by providing a razor bladeholder including a body having a longitudinal slit therein extendingcornpletely through one end thereof. The body thereby has a pair oflingers on each side of the slit. Means are also provided which areactuable to hold said fingers tightly against a razor blade in the slit,and thereby to restrain movement of the razor blade in it.

In accordance with a feature of the present invention, the body of therazor blade holder may be made of a liexible or resilient plasticmaterial so that the lingers may be pushed apart or pulled together. Therazor blade holder of the present invention is therefore inexpensive tomanufacture.

In accordance with another feature of the invention, the ends of thelingers are provided with means to snap together to hold the lingers inpressure contact with a razor blade. This means may be molded integrallywith the razor blade holderbody. This makes the assembly of a removablerazor blade between the body fingers an easy matter.

In accordance with another feature of the present invention, projectionsare provided in between the fingers to fit in holes through the razorblade. This keeps the razor blade in a secure position between thelingers and in a position lixed relative thereto.

Still another feature `of the present invention incorporates a one-pieceU-shaped guard for la razor blade in the holder. This construction isless expensive to manufacture and stronger than razor blade guards ofthe prior art.

The above-described and other advantages of the present invention willbe -better understood from the following description when considered inconnection with the -accompanying drawings.

I n the drawings which are to be regarded as merely illustrative FIG. lis a side elevational view of a closed straight razor constructed inaccordance with the present invention;

FIG. 2 i-s a view similar to FIG. l with a razor blade guard shown inits open position;

blade and a razor blade holder taken on the line 5-5 in FIG. 2;

FIG. 6 is an end elevational View of the holder shown in FIG. 2; and

FIG. 7 is a longitudinal sectional view of the holder similar to theview of FIG. 3 with a pair of holder fingers spaced apart and without arazor blade therebetween.

In FIG. l, a razor 10 is shown including a plastic guard 11 having aU-shaped construction as shown in FIG. 3,

and a razor blade holder or body 12 which has muchl on a linger 16 asshown in FIG. 7.

FIG. 3 is a broken longitudinal sectional view taken Holder 12 ispivoted about a pin 17 that extends through the ends of legs 18 and 19of guard 11, a's shown in FIG. 4. Also as'shown in FIG. 4, holder 12 isprovided with shoulders at 20 and 21 which keep holder 12 spaced fromthe interior surfaces of guard legs 19 and 18 respectively.

Holder 12, except for a bore 22 therein as shown in FIG. 4 toaccommodate pin 17, is solid to Ia point indicated by a dotted line 23Iin FIG. 2. At this point, as indicated in FIG. 7, lingers 14 and 16begin to separate. A razor blade is indicated at 24 in FIG. 2 and is infact held tightly between fingers 14 and 16 as shown in both FIGS.4 2and 3. Finger 16 is provided with a recess at 25 to accommodate blade24. Finger 14 is provided with a similar recess 26.

The plastic of guard 11 and holder 12 may be nylon, if desired, tofacilitate a snap lit of flange 13 over projection 15. Razor blade 24may be entirely conventionah This blade may have a size as shown' in thedrawings, which may be to scale. The razor blade 24 so illustrated is infact a conventional blade which is presently commercially sold on theopen market. Blade 24 therefore has holes at 27 and 28 through whichprojections 29 and 30 project respectively, projections 29 and 30 beingprojections from finger 14 as shown in FIG. 7. A third projection 31that extends alongthe upper edge of blade 24 also extends, integral withnger 14 as shown in FIGS. 2, 5 and 7, away therefrom. Projection 31serves to keep blade 24 straight within body 12.

As shown in FIG. 7, liange 13 has a beveled surface at 32 and a notch 33lhaving a beveled surface 34.

Similar-ly, projection 15 has a beveled surface 35 to engage surface 32frictionally and slide thereunder.- Projection 15 also has a beveledsurface at 36 to lit in p-ressure contact with and to mate with surface34 in flange A notch 33.

From the foregoing, it will be appreciated that holder 12 maybe madeeasily and economically due to the'fact that it may be injection moldedor otherwise molded of nylon. The liexibility or resilience make itpossible to mold Iholder 12 with lingers 14 and 16 all in one piece. Thesnap lit of :projection 15 in notch 33 of flange 13 makes it possibleyto assemble and disassemble blade 24 between lingers 14 and 16.

Propections 27, 28 and 31 with recesses 24 and 26 maintain Iblade 24 in-a strong and secure lixed position between lingers 14 and 16 as shownin FIGS. 2 and 3.

The use of U-shaped guard 11 as shown in FIG. 3 also .provides 4a strongyet economical construction.

Although only one specific embodiment of the invention has beendescribed and illustrated, many changes and modifications thereof will,of course, suggest themselves to those skilled in the art. The inventionis therefore not to be limited to the specific embodiment selected forthis disclosure, the true scope of the invention being defined only inthe appended claim.

3 What is claimed is: A razor blade holder comprising: a body having alongitudinal slit therein extending completely through one end thereof;said body thereby 'having a pair of ngers on each side olf said slit,said body being made of a exible v material to permit movement of saidfingers toward and away from each other; and a projection on one of saidiingers, the other of said fingers having a notch therein to receivesaid projection, said fingers being movable toward each other until saidprojection tfalls in said notch and said fingers are thereby heldtightly against a razor blade in said slit to restrain any movement ofthe `razor blade therein, said projection being liXed to the end of saidone finger to extend longitudinally therefrom, said other finger havinga flange extending from the end thereof toward @said one finger, saidflange having said notch therein to ride over said projection, an edgeof said notch being located in a position tol slide frictionally oversaid projection only upon springing of said fingers by an application ofipressure thereon -to force said fingers together, the snap t thusproduced thereby keeping said fingers in pressure contact with a' bladeto hold the same securely in a fixed position relative to said ngers,said ange having a beveled surface at the edge thereof to ride up onsaid projection, saidl notch having a beveled surface to retain saidprojection therein, said projection having mating surfaces inclined atthe same angles as said flange, and notch beveled surfaces.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 557,760 4/1896Brauer 30-159 575,361 1/1897 Livingston 30-159 `1,084,238 1/1914 Stoufer30-32 1,088,183 2/1914 Sheehan 30--53 1,125,996 l/l915 Fickeissen 30--531,187,357 6/1916 Mari 30--53 1,338,908 5/1920 Crawford 30-32 1,342,4946/1920' Zimmerman 30-31 1,439,059 12/1922 Blum 30--53 2,315,297 3/1943Tischler 30-32 2,710,445 6/1955 Fitzpatrick 30-32 X 2,746,147 5/1956Booth 30-339 FOREIGN PATENTS 79,374 11/1918 Switzerland.

WILLIAM FELDMAN, Primary Examiner.

r MYRON C. KRUSE, Examiner.

